Benny Gantz News

imaginable permutation of land swaps and security arrangements. All failed. And yet something changed after October 7th.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political allies vigorously made the case for him to replace his defense minister amid bitter disagreement over the war in Gaza, a move that would deepen the divide between the leader and his security establishment and remove the government’s main advocate of a tighter relationship with the U.S. Sacking Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has clashed publicly with Netanyahu for months, would have wide-ranging impacts on the country’s multifront war and U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the Middle East on Monday in an effort to salvage cease-fire negotiations, as leaders from Hamas and Israel express skepticism toward President Biden’s peace plans. Blinken’s trip—which includes stops in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar—comes at a sensitive time after eight months of fighting.

Israel, as hundreds of thousands of Israeli reservists rushed to join the ranks to fight Hamas, Benny Gantz said he felt it was his duty to join the war effort.

Hamas raged across the north on Sunday as Israel's leaders aired divisions over who should govern Gaza after the war, now in its eighth month. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism from the two other members of his War Cabinet, with his main political rival, Benny Gantz, threatening to leave the government if a plan is not created by June 8 that includes an international administration for postwar Gaza. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan was expected to meet with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on Sunday to discuss an ambitious US plan for Saudi Arabia to recognise Israel and help the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza in exchange for a path to eventual statehood. Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood and has rejected those proposals, saying Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with local Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Benjamin Netanyahu, according to an Israeli official, in a sign of widening cracks in Israel's wartime government nearly five months into its war with Hamas. The trip by Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival who joined Netanyahu’s hard-line government in the early days of the war following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, comes amid deep disagreements between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden over how to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and create a post-war vision for the enclave.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

Gaza overnight, half of them women and children, health officials said Thursday. European foreign ministers and U.N. agencies called for a cease-fire, with alarm rising over the worsening humanitarian crisis and potential starvation in the territory. Tensions were also rising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where three Palestinian gunmen on Thursday opened fire on morning traffic at a highway checkpoint, killing one person and wounding five others, Israeli police said.

Israel-Hamas war: Benny Gantz, a minister of Israel's war cabinet has warned Hamas that they must return all the hostages by March 10 or Israeli forces will launch a ground invasion in Rafah. The warning came as the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are seeking refugee in Rafah, a small city close to the Egypt border. The international agencies have raised concerns that any attack on Rafah will lead to a “massacre." The death toll in Israeli strikes on Gaza has crossed 28,000 and the peace proposals moved by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States are not creating much movement on the ground.

Israel will launch its long-threatened offensive against Rafah next month if Hamas has not freed the remaining hostages held in Gaza by the start of Ramadan, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said. «The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know — if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,» Gantz, a retired military chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem Sunday. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, is expected to begin on March 10.

Gal Meir Eisenkot, the son of Israeli Minister Gadi Eisenkot, and Sgt. Major (res.) Jonathan David Deitch of the 55th Brigade's 6623rd Reconnaissance Battalion have been killed in the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel reported quoting the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The IDF informed that Eisenkot (25), of the 551st Brigade's 699th Battalion from Herzliya, was killed in northern Gaza. It added that three other troopers were seriously injured and shifted to hospitals for treatment.

Elon Musk, who's been under fire over accusations of antisemitism flourishing on his social media platform X, paid a visit Monday to Israel, where he toured a kibbutz that was attacked last month by Hamas militants and was set to meet with top leaders. The billionaire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the Kfar Azza kibbutz, which was stormed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Musk, wearing a protective vest and escorted by a phalanx of security personnel, used his phone to take photos or videos of the devastation, according to video released by Netanyahu's office.

Benjamin Netanyahu monitored the first release of Hamas-held hostages while outside, their families in a Tel Aviv square gathered around Benny Gantz, his leading challenger for the top job. On camera Gantz, a former army chief and opposition leader who joined Netanyahu's war cabinet last month, pointedly asked a TV crew to leave him alone with the families. Photos published later showed him hugging individuals in the crowd. Facing a huge wave of criticism over his failure to prevent the shock Hamas infiltration of Israel on Oct.

Netanyahu Sunday retracted and apologized for a post on platform X (formerly known as Twitter), in which he took a jab at his intelligence chiefs saying they never warned him that Hamas was planning its wide-scale attack on October 7, 2023, reported Reuters. "At no time and no stage was a warning given to Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding war intentions of Hamas. On the contrary, all security officials, including the head of army intelligence and the head of the Shin Bet, estimated that Hamas was deterred and interested in an arrangement," Netanyahu had said in his post on X, (around 2300 GMT on Saturday).

Israel-Gaza war LIVE Updates His comments caused a huge political uproar and also led to a rift within his war cabinet. After drawing criticism for not taking responsibility for the intelligence and operational failures surrounding the Hamas attack, Netanyahu deleted the tweet on social media platform X at 1 a.m.

Israel-Hamas War LIVE Updates Netanyahu, while addressing the nation said, “We are in the middle of a campaign for our existence. We set two goals for the war: to eliminate Hamas by destroying its military and governmental capabilities and to do everything possible to return our abductees home.

Israel continues to retaliate against Hamas, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that Hamas thought Israel would break, but «We will break Hamas,» reported The Times of Israel. During the weekly cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister along with ministers stood in silence for a minute and paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the deadly Hamas attack. «Hamas thought we would break; we will break Hamas,» Netanyahu said. He further stressed that Israel is working in unity and it conveys a clear message to Hamas and to the world.

Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday an «emergency government» with an opposition party leader, Benny Gantz, for the duration of the war with Gaza militants. «Following a meeting… held today, the two agreed on establishing an emergency government and war cabinet,» said a joint statement by the premier and Gantz, a former defence minister and army chief. The three-member «war cabinet» would include Netanyahu, Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Gadi Eisenkot, also a former army chief from Gantz's party, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will serve as observers, according to the statement. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has not joined his former ally Gantz, but the statement said a seat would be «reserved» for him in the war cabinet. Netanyahu's extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies would remain in government. The premier has agreed to freeze the hardline government's divisive judicial overhaul, which had triggered mass street protests — the biggest in the country's history. «During the war, no bills or government-sponsored motions that are unrelated to the war would be advanced,» the statement said. Gantz last served in a Netanyahu administration in 2020-2021 under a rotation agreement that was meant to see him take the helm for the second half of the government's tenure, but early elections had been called before he was to become prime minister.

unity government to deal with the complex situation after the unprecedented attack by Hamas militants that has left at least 300 Israelis dead. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz spoke on Saturday and discussed the possibility of joining Netanyahu's government because of the emergency created by Saturday's infiltration and rocket attacks from Gaza, Ha'aretz newspaper reported. The two opposition leaders expressed their willingness, but Lapid demanded far-right leaders and ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, be removed.

Israel has seized millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency allegedly used to finance the Iran-backed militant groups.

Tel Aviv's Magistrate Court has reportedly issued a ruling allowing Israel's government to seize all the crypto in more than 150 digital wallets it blacklisted over alleged links to funding terrorist groups.